Crosby not only had two hits, he also had two other good moments easily overlooked: a terrific short-hop backhand pickup of a slashing liner by Lofton, and a great AB moving Chavez over to third in the 8th. I could get used to stuff like that.

Vasquez has a pretty swing.

Embree may be no great pitcher, but he has really stepped up.

The Yankees are 13.5 games out and are tied with Tampa Bay for last place. The A's won and the Angels lost. That's what I call a good night.

Good night.

nitrous oxide will last longer than i expected.

On the negative side, Kiko Calero would be well advised to learn how to do a couple of things:

1. Get out

2. Hold runners on

Lewis' whiff of Sosa was the high point of the game for me. Thankfully, Sosa was trying to murder the ball for a slam instead of just trying to hit it (a single at that point would've tied the game and kept the inning rolling).

All Star?

I think Haren is a lock.  Maybe Swish.  But perhaps Go Dan as well?

The guy is simply a monster.  Imagine what he could do if he was fully healthy.  I just hope he doesn't wind up having an Ethier 2006 season. You know, kill the ball for the first few months and then drop off a cliff.

First things first...

HUGE props to Colby Lewis for striking out Sammy "Steroids" Sosa with the bases loaded and the game on the line. That inning could have gotten very ugly in a hurry, and he battled through it.

Secondly...

Watching Buck play is a delight. His bomb in the first set the tone, and he goes all out on every play.

Chavez' 3-run bomb was truly unexpected. I had just finished whining that it was a rare time I was hoping for Crosby to bat instead of Chavez, and Eric proved me wrong. His swing looked like the Eric of old tonight, powering two extra base hits that were solid line drives.

There were also two near-bombs. Cust's double looked like it had a shot, and shockingly, Kendall fooled us all as well. It almost got me to stop yelling "We Want Melhuse!!!" every time he came up to the plate, but it didn't go out, and I didn't stop being an ass.

Good win. I like seeing guys like Lewis and Embree step up when needed. Great to see Seattle did their job as well. One more game up in the standings.

and am dying to see a replay of Travis' "catch"!

Def. did not show the replay on DiamondVision.

So, I just got back from the game, where I was sitting in the LF bleachers (per usual).  Anyways, I wanted to comment on the Kendall near miss real quick.  That ball exploded off the bat...it was high and deep...and at any other moment, even in this game, it would have been out.  But, as the ball was travelling out, I felt a chilling breeze from behind me.  At that moment, it was as if the ball hit a wall, and it dropped lazily into Byrd's glove.  I looked back at the flag in the gap, and it was blowing straight in.

God really does hate Jason Kendall.  He hit his hardest ball of the year at the one moment in the game when the wind was blowing in the hardest.

Oh, and the Chavvy homer caught us all by surprise.  We figured the inning was over...go figure.

... does any pitcher throw Chavez an offspeed pitch, or Cust a fastball?